Page 41 of State of Grace (First Family 2)

“Oh my God,” Nick said.

“I loved her. I’d never have done anything to harm her, and her parents knew that.”

“They also knew your dad was loaded, right?” Nick asked.

Eli grimaced as he nodded.

“Son of a bitch,” Nick said.

“It was a complete nightmare. I was arrested, arraigned, charged with a felony. My dad hired the best lawyers money could buy, offered her parents whatever they wanted to drop the charges, but by then, it was out of their hands. The lawyers were able to get the charges reduced to a misdemeanor count, but I have a sealed juvenile record that we’ve been trying to have expunged since I turned eighteen and satisfied the terms of the original agreement. It’s in the works, but it hasn’t happened yet.” After a long pause, he added, “The worst part is that I’ve never seen or spoken to Candace again since the night her parents found out we were having sex.”

“I’m so sorry that happened to you, Eli,” Sam said.

“It was the worst thing I’d ever been through until my dad and Cleo were murdered. I think about Candace all the time, and I just hope when she turns eighteen in January that she’ll reach out to me.”

“What happened to bring this up again?” Nick asked.

“Cleo’s sister Monique knows about it. She emailed me to say how unfortunate it would be if that got out and how embarrassing it would be to my ‘new’ family, the president and first lady, to find out they have a rapist in their midst, not to mention what Princeton might have to say about it. She went on to say that we could avoid all that by settling the custody dispute out of court and doing the right thing for the twins, which of course means turning them over to her and her parents. She’s the last person on earth I’d want raising them.”

“I knew I fucking hated that woman the first time I met her,” Sam said, feeling as if she could commit murder on behalf of the young man she’d come to love.

“Yeah, she’s a prize,” Eli said. “Cleo never got along with her, so I can’t imagine she told her about it. But Cleo must’ve confided in her mother when it was happening, because they were close, and that’s how Monique knows.”

Nick withdrew his BlackBerry from his pocket and put through a call, putting the phone on speaker.

“Mr. President, to what do I owe the honor?”

“Stuff it, Andy,” Nick said with a small smile. His friends loved to razz him every chance they got about his new title. “We’ve got a problem with the custody case.”

“What’s that?” Andy asked, all signs of amusement gone from his tone.

Nick gave him the condensed version of the story Eli had told them.

“She said this in an email?” Andy asked.

“She did,” Eli confirmed.

“Will you forward that to me?”

“Sure.” Eli pulled out his cell phone and sent the email to Andy, whose address he already had due to the ongoing case.

“Hang on a second,” Andy said. “I’m reading it now.” After a long moment in which Sam, Nick and Eli existed in painful silence, Andy said, “Wow, what a piece of work. She’s threatening to blackmail a young man whose father and stepmother were recently murdered by revealing the details of a sealed juvenile record to the media. I think the judge will be interested in seeing this, and I’ll be reaching out to the attorney representing their family to let her know her clients are resorting to some dirty tricks.”

“Do you think that will help our case?” Eli asked.

“It won’t hurt. Don’t forget… We already have the advantage because your father and Cleo’s wishes were clear. We have to go through the motions with the court, but I just did a quick check online and found that the California Supreme Court has ruled that the disclosure of the names of minors involved in crimes isn’t considered an invasion of privacy.”

“Great,” Eli said. “So she could destroy my entire life and get away with it?”

“I’m going to file an injunction with the court to bar the release of that information in relation to the custody case.”

“Will that work?” Nick asked.

“It should. The judge assigned to this case is a no-nonsense type who won’t like that she did this. She may have helped us by putting her threats in writing. I’ll send this to opposing counsel and the judge right now and ask for guidance on how to proceed. I know it’s very stressful to have to wait, but you did the right thing telling us about this, Eli. It’s better not to have any surprises in a situation like this. I’ll be in touch as soon as I know more.”

“Thanks, Andy,” Nick said.

“You got it. Try to get some sleep. We’ll take care of it.”